


Hoofball

by Burgie



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 01:38:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14125305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Rainbow Dash and Applejack challenge Rarity to a friendly game of hoofball to decide who gets the park on a nice, sunny day in Ponyville.





	Hoofball

It was a beautiful day in Ponyville. This was a very good and very rare thing as, up until just recently, the pegasi had scheduled a lot of rain. According to them, it was to help the crops recover from summer, and return green to the land once more. Whatever the reason, the days of rain had been simply dreadful, playing havoc with Rarity’s mane and sapping her creative drive. Now, though, Rarity was more than happy to just recline on a sun lounger out in the warm sunshine in the park, soaking up the rays and sighing in complete contentment.

Until something wet suddenly splattered onto her face. Rarity immediately sat up with a scream, her sunglasses hanging askew as she scrambled off of her sun lounger. Her rump hit the ground, which was unfortunately rather damp here, and Rarity gave a squeal of displeasure as she scrambled to her hooves.

“Ew, ew, ew!” Rarity squealed, prancing on the spot and very much not enjoying the way the mud squished beneath her hooves.

“Sorry! Guess you shouldn’t have decided to sleep on the side of the hoofball pitch,” Rainbow’s voice called as the Pegasus flew over to her. Rarity glowered at her.

“Or maybe you two should have found a better place to set up your brutish game,” said Rarity with a sniff, pointing her nose into the air. “Couldn’t you see me sunning myself there?” Applejack rolled her eyes as she trotted over too.

“Rarity, there’re thousands of places in town to sun yerself today,” said Applejack.

“Well, I wanted to sun myself here, right in this beautiful park,” said Rarity. “Now, move your game elsewhere.”

“Nah,” said Rainbow, bouncing the ball on her back hoof. “I like this place.” Rarity narrowed her eyes at her.

“Move,” said Rarity, attempting to lace her voice with steel. Rainbow and Applejack snickered.

“Are ya gonna make us, sugarcube?” asked Applejack, smirking. Rarity bristled.

“As a matter of fact, I will,” said Rarity, levitating her hat off of her head and placing it on the sun lounger. She trotted around it, coming face to face with the other mares.

“What say we play fer it?” asked Applejack. “Jus’ a simple little game, winner gets to keep the spot.”

“Well, two against one is hardly fair,” said Rarity. Rainbow rolled her eyes.

“Uh, Rarity, in case you didn’t notice, you have a horn,” said Rainbow, tapping Rarity’s head in front of her horn. Rarity frowned, leaning away from Rainbow and attempting to remove the mud from her mane with magic. She succeeded only in rubbing it in, and resigned herself to a long, hot soak later.

“Yeah. Ya can levitate the ball or use yer hooves,” said Applejack. “It’s plenty fair.”

“If you say so,” said Rarity with a sniff. “Very well, then, we will play this game of… hoofball… to decide who gets the park.” She shuddered at the name of the game, to which Rainbow and Applejack shared an eye-roll. They continued to stare as Rarity began to stretch.

“What are you doing?” asked Rainbow, frowning.

“Stretching, of course,” said Rarity, currently in a rather cat-like stretch as she stretched her back legs out behind her. “I don’t want to sustain an injury, after all.”

“Didn’t pick you fer someone who knows about hoofball,” said Applejack. Rarity scoffed.

“Darling, my father plays the game, of course I know all about it,” said Rarity, stretching her neck one last time and then declaring herself ready. “Let’s go.”

“Hope you’re ready to give up your sunbathing spot,” said Rainbow. Applejack snickered.

“Yeah, maybe yer cat can show ya a good place ta sunbathe,” said Applejack. Rarity snorted.

“And I hope that you’re ready to find somewhere else to play hoofball,” said Rarity. She really wasn’t looking forward to this, but she really didn’t want to give up her nice sunbathing spot just for a stupid game. She shuddered at the mud that coated Rainbow and Applejack and dripped from their manes, but, before she could think any more about it, Rainbow swung around and kicked the ball towards Rarity. The unicorn squealed and ducked, her horn glowing to stop the ball before it could collide with her sun lounger.

“Yeah, we should probably set some goals first, huh?” said Rainbow.

“You did that on purpose,” Rarity huffed, trotting with the other two mares over to a more spacious area. Applejack nudged the ball to the proper spot with her nose, turned around, and bucked it hard towards Rarity. The unicorn screamed and ducked, the ball flying over her to land squarely in a puddle behind her, covering her with mud. She screamed again.

“Rarity, anyone would think you were bein’ murdered,” said Applejack with a roll of her eyes. Rarity glared at her.

“Well, excuse me for caring about my appearance!” Rarity snapped, and plucked the ball up with her magic, flinging it back towards Rainbow, who caught it in her front hooves, turned a somersault, and flung the ball towards the goal that she’d set up earlier behind Rarity.

Forgetting her magic in the rush, Rarity lunged for the ball, landing right in front of her goal in the very large mud puddle.

“Ha! You didn’t get it in!” Rarity gloated, standing with mud dripping from her mane and into her eyes. She only moved it away from her eyes with magic, and then kicked the ball back towards the opposing team.

“Woah, girl can kick,” said Applejack, ducking so that Rainbow could swoop over her and kick the ball back towards Rarity. Unable to jump high enough, Rarity used her magic to form a shield this time, which bounced the ball back towards the opposing team with so much force that it would have flown right into the net, had Rainbow not stopped it. Rainbow uncurled from the ball, shaking mud from her wings, and then kicked it back to Rarity.

As the game progressed, Rarity found that she was beginning to enjoy herself quite a lot. She didn’t even care about the mud that was ruining her mane and pristine white coat, or the dirt stuck in her hooves, or the fact that she was ruining her makeup. She was gripped by the urge to win, just as she was often gripped by inspiration or the urge to create new designs. And, even better, this was fun.

After a while, Rarity actually forgot about why she was playing. She cared only about winning, and proving to Applejack and Rainbow Dash that she wasn’t too ladylike to play hoofball. She was actually disappointed when Applejack raised her hooves to indicate that the game was over.

“Alright,” said Applejack, puffing and panting. “You win. You can have yer sunbathin’ spot.”

“What?” Rarity whined. “But I was having fun!”

“Sorry, Rares, we’re plum tuckered out,” said Applejack. “Didn’t think you could play.”

“Well, I do pride myself on being full of surprises,” said Rarity with a flick of her mane. “When can we play again?”

“Well… we do always need recruits for the Ponyville hoofball team,” said Applejack. “I’ll let ya know next time we’re meetin’.”

“Oh, please do,” said Rarity, smiling. “I never expected such a messy game to be so, well, fun!”

“Well, I’m glad ya like it,” said Applejack with a grin. “Look forward to seein’ ya at the next meet.”

“Yeah, it’ll be great to have a friend on the team,” said Rainbow with a smile. Rarity returned their smiles, filled to the brim with happiness.

As the two others trotted away, Rarity smiled and collected her hat and sun lounger before she headed home for that long, hot soak. While it had been amazingly fun, she greatly looked forward to washing off all that mud.


End file.
